Suspect Dead After Lancaster Gun Battle

LANCASTER (CBSDFW.COM)- Police have identified the man who was shot and killed while committing an armed robbery at a Lancaster apartment complex as 20-year-old Micah Newman.

(credit: Lancaster Police)

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LANCASTER (CBSDFW.COM) – A gun battle at a Lancaster apartment complex on Wednesday night ended with the death of a man who police have identified as an armed robbery suspect. According to authorities, the incident started at around 8:45 p.m. Wednesday night, when the suspect confronted a man and his wife at the Bel-Air Place Apartments, located in the 1500 block of Dewberry Boulevard.

Shots rang out during the upstairs confrontation. The suspect made his way outside and back down to the parking lot, into the vicitm’s pickup truck parked nearby. That is where he was shot and killed. The suspect was found dead inside of the truck. “All appearances lead us to believe the robber followed the confronted individual outside of the apartment,” detailed Lt. Kelly Hooten with the Lancaster Police Department. “They went up to the victim’s apartment where the gun battle started, and then it moved back down to the parking lot.”

CBS 11 News spoke with that intended victim on Thursday morning. “It started in the house, the gun battle, in the house,” said the man who did not want to be identified. “I just happened to come out on top.”

According to neighbors, the victim was standing in the apartment building’s breezeway, talking to other residents, when the suspect approached. He demanded money, but the victim said that it was all upstairs. “He made me open the door,” the victim recalled. “I had my gun laying over there, and I did what’s natural. I defended myself.”

“About seven shots,” remembered 14-year-old neighbor Gia Boyd.

The victim said that he reacted, in part, out of fear. “I was scared,” he said. “Wouldn’t you be scared?”

The man and his wife, who was inside of the apartment unit when shots were first fired, were not hurt during the incident. Police said that they did not know the suspect. Officials have not released the identities of anyone involved in this case, but the suspect’s body was taken to the Dallas County Medical Examiner’s office.

Police do not plan to charge the man or his wife in the shooting, but they are being questioned as part of the investigation. “It is under investigation, but everything leads us to believe it was a robbery attempt and he was the vicitm,” said Hooten.

Investigators said that the man appears to have been protecting himself and his property. “I think he was protecting himself,” said neighbor Rhonda Robertson. “You’re supposed to protect yourself and your property, and that man was in the wrong, and I feel like my neighbor did what he needed to do.”